October 26, 2011

Demand coal royalty from Centre, Left’s Asim tells govt

Express News Service Posted online: Tue Oct
25 2011, 05:56 hrs

Kolkata : Amid Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee’s demand for a financial package from the Centre, Asim
Dasgupta, the former finance minister in the Left Front government, on Monday
said the state government should demand Rs 5,000 crore coal royalty from the
Central government.

He said other states too have been getting coal
royalty from the Centre and thus they cannot oppose the West Bengal
government's demand. The state government's demand for a financial package from
the Centre had angered other states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu whose chief
ministers, Narendra Modi and Jayalalitha respectively, had alleged
step-motherly treatment by the Centre.

Addressing mediapersons in Kolkata, Dasgupta
said the Centre has not given the state any royalty for the coal dug up from
Bengal since 1991. “Moreover, there is a Supreme Court order on giving coal
royalty to the states,” he added.

Dasgupta, who had been handling the state's
finances for nearly two decades said the incumbent government has not
highlighted the coal royalty while demanding financial aid from the Centre. He
even termed that some of the claims made by the Mamata Banerjee-led government
on the financial status of the state as “misleading”. “The total revenue
receipt of the state government is Rs 65,848 crore of which 74 per cent and not
94 per cent, as claimed by the present government, is spent on paying salaries,
pensions and interest,” said Dasgupta, who called the new government as
“incompetent”.

Dasgupta said the total income of the state
government stands at Rs 87,643 crore, and out of this 63 per cent is spent of
salary, pensions and interest to the loans. He said the remaining, Rs 32,713,
crore be spent by the state to meet various expenses.

Alleging that the incumbent government has not
been able to manage the state’s finances effectively, Dasgupta said the Left
Front government had borrowed Rs 5,000 crore from the open market last year,
but the new government has borrowed Rs 10,000 crore in the same period this
year. He also said that while last year the state government had been able to
increase the tax collection to 29 per cent, this year the growth has been only
19 per cent against a target of 30 per cent.

He also rejected the government's claim that the
state has “humongous” debt. The former finance minister said that while Bengal has
a debt of Rs 1.92 lakh crore, other states like Maharashtra has a debt of Rs
2.36 lakh crore and UP has Rs 2.35 lakh crore as debts as on March 31,2011.

Asim data duel with Mamata

THE TELEGRAPH, Issue Date: Tuesday ,
October 25 , 2011

Calcutta, Oct. 24: Former finance minister
Asim Dasgupta today opened a war of numbers with Mamata Banerjee by calling
into question the data used by the chief minister to seek special assistance
from the Centre to overcome Bengal’s financial woes.

During her meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh last week, Mamata had highlighted that the state government was left with
only 6 paise from every rupee it earned to fund development and blamed the
crisis on the Left’s 34 years of “misrule”.

“Out of one rupee, 94 paise are spent on salary
and other responsibilities of the state. Only 6 paise are left for development.
How will we do with such little money? The Centre has to think,” she had said
in Delhi.

Dasgupta said that according to the financial
statement (Abstract of the Annual Financial Statement 2011-12 and Trends of
Expenditure and Growth Trajectories) tabled by his successor Amit Mitra, the
state’s outgo on salaries, pension and interest payment constituted 74 per cent
of the revenue receipts.

No one from the government was available to
explain the accounting Mamata had used to arrive at the 94-paise figure.

“I don’t know how the figure of 94 was arrived
at,” Dasgupta said.

“If the Centre extends help to the state
government, it will be good. But what was said while seeking extra assistance
was misleading and incomplete,” he added.

Dasgupta has held several news conferences in
the past five months to rebut Mamata’s claim that the Left’s misrule had
plunged Bengal into bankruptcy. On all such occasions, the attempt was to
defend the Left record and its policies by rolling out economic data.

Today, he went on the attack, first questioning
the numbers that form the basis of Mamata’s strident demand for special central
assistance, the absence of which even after five months in power appears to be
frustrating her. Non-Congress states have opposed a special package for Bengal,
alleging this would amount to discrimination against them.

“This government had set a target of 30 per cent
growth in tax revenue collection, but till now the growth has been only around
19 per cent. In the corresponding period, we had achieved a growth of around 29
per cent last year,” said Dasgupta.

The former finance minister also mentioned that
the new government’s market borrowing had touched Rs 10,000 crore — the highest
among all states — in the five months of the current fiscal year while the Left
Front had restricted it to Rs 9,500 crore for all of 2010-11.

“Government employees have not received even one
instalment of the dearness allowance this year,” he said. The issue of arrears
and DA for government staff is sensitive as the state employs over 10 lakh
people.